Rita Rochelle Brown

RITA ROCHELLE BROWN, the daughter of Virgil and Margie Poling of Mason City, Iowa, came into this world to make people laugh and to show people love. After a good, early childhood with three loving siblings, Rita’s natural free spirit could not handle her mother’s strict rules any longer, especially after her parents’ separation, so she moved to Flippin, Arkansas, to live with her favorite Aunt, Annie Ellis.

Aunt Annie was a school teacher and Rita was a student in her small schoolhouse classroom. Rita did not get away with much during this time. However, once Rita was out of Aunt Annie’s classroom, Flippin would never be the same. In 1954, after several more years of antics and laughs, Rita graduated 11th in her class at Flippin High School. Out of twelve students. She almost did not graduate, however, due to her antics on stage during graduation rehearsal.

Once out of school, Rita headed west in an attempt to make it as an actress in Hollywood. But Rita suffered from a bad case of asthma and she ended up missing half of her summer acting school at the Pasadena Playhouse. Aunt Annie received a nice letter from the head of the school indicating that Rita would have been on par with the likes of Lucille Ball had Rita stayed healthy and been “more serious” about her classes. He went on to say how much Rita had entertained them. The letter was lengthy and heartfelt. If you have the chance to read it, and you had the chance to know Rita, you’ll know exactly what he meant and where Rita might have ended up.

After funning around with some Hollywood types, and after having dated the likes of Fred Astaire, Jr. in Pasadena, Rita’s dad introduced her to a real man: 31 year old Captain Neil Cole Brown (pilot, USAF). As it happens, Neil hailed from Burbank, California. They were soon married and on Neil’s birth day so that he would not forget their anniversary: December 7, in the year 1955.

In 1956, Neil promptly forgot their wedding date while yucking it up with friends at the Officer’s Club.

And he lived to regret it.

The first 15 years of their marriage, “they” were in the Air Force, enjoying life and moving from base to base. They were initially stationed in Louisiana, where Rita lifeguarded, taught swimming lessons, and was a volunteer “candy striper” nurse at the base hospital. She also enjoyed: riding her bicycle through the middle of the Officer’s Club during Happy Hour; purposefully trailing long strands of toilet paper out of her skirt when making her “Officer’s wife” entrance into the Club from the ladies room; disregarding Neil’s instruction to “not go there”, but going anyway and ending up on a live national television broadcast from the middle of a huge civil rights march in a downtown Louisiana city (Neil’s buddies saw Rita on TV and asked Neil, “Hey, isn’t that Rita!?”); and generally making Neil nervous that she’d surely destroy his stellar military career. But Neil need not have worried. Everybody loved Rita.

Six years after the first dinner plate was thrown at Neil, their first of two children, Lance, was born into the funhouse. Lance took some of the heat off of Neil. Sixteen months of love later, little Neil was born, and big Neil was almost a target-free man. On to other bases in Massachusetts, San Diego, Panama (Neil retired there in 1970, and Rita was overheard saying, “Great. I now get twice the husband and only half the income."), and then returned to San Diego as civilians.

Rita was very involved with her two sons’ education (sports education) from the time they were six through their college years. Rita once said that watching her sons play baseball and football gave her one of the biggest thrills of her life. She was known for her loud support of the teams and for the cowbell she rang at the games. Rita pulled one prank on her sons’ high school football team which fired them up so much that they stormed out of the locker room and defeated their cross-town rivals that night, despite having lost soundly to that same team earlier in the season. Rita pulled a lot of jokes on her sons during their youth and beyond. And they are that much richer for it.

Her husband, lover, and friend passed away in 2000. Rita had a very tender heart, yet portrayed a stoic front. Neil and Rita had many adventures, loves and tragedies over their 45 years of marriage. She was buoyed by her many friends and family.

Rita was a supporting mother, a loving wife, and a very giving friend. And a Norte Dame football fan. Compassionate, humorous, energetic, and nary an hour passed without someone hearing her infectious, hearty laugh. If you weren’t the brunt of one of her jokes or the object of one of her pranks, then you were being entertained on an almost constant basis. There are too many stories to relate here. Just know this, as her good friend, Bob Powroznik, summed it:

“Rita was one for the ages”.

Rita developed COPD from smoking for nearly 60 years and was hospitalized numerous times in her last year. She came back fighting the good fight three times, but her asthma complicated matters for her lungs which were damaged and beyond repair. Rita said, "To quit smoking, well that's easy. I ought to know. I’ve done it a thousand times!" In the early morning of March 14, 2012, Rita Brown slipped away in her sleep and joined her beloved husband in the heavens.

Rita leaves behind numerous friends and very few acquaintances. Few people in this world are privileged to have such a beloved daughter, sister, wife, mother, and friend. Rita is now a falling star who has finally found her place next to her husband in a lovely constellation where she will sparkle in the heavens forever.

Rita was preceded in death by her sister, Mary Ann Poling Audette, and is survived by her brothers, Gene and Mike Poling, numerous nieces and nephews, her sons, Lance and Neil, and four grandsons, Alexander, Austin, Aric and Cole. In Lieu of flowers please give the gift of life to Saint Jude Children's Hospital in Rita’s name.

There will be a celebration of life on Saturday, March 24, 2012, at 3:00pm at the Rancho Vallecitos clubhouse, San Marcos, California. Eulogizers of quick-witted brevity are welcome to speak. Those who drone on will be dumped at sea when family and a few close friends scatter Rita’s ashes near her husband’s resting place off the coast of Oceanside, on Sunday, March 25, 2012.